UK Political weblog

Archive for the category “Nudity”

Stephen Gough the ‘naked rambler’ arrested as he left prison, taken to Court and given another two and a half years, making close to ten years inside at huge public expense.

Ten Years! What has he done, committed murder, bank robbery, rape, Banking fraud (oh no you don’t get done for that) GBH? No, none of these, he just defends his right to walk across the country without clothes although with the amount of camping gear his carries on his back he’s almost dressed anyway. He is also making a statement that nudity is not offensive unless you have a very peculiar mind set in which case it’s your problem not his. Out of a global population of say, 8 billion it follows that around 4 billion have dangly bits between their legs so I’d call that normal, ordinary and completely unremarkable and about as offensive as beans on toast.

Being nude in the UK IS NOT ILLEGAL but under our often ridiculous laws it only requires one person to say they are offended and that includes one policeman feeling vindictive, then the person without clothes can be arrested for ‘conduct liable to bring about a breach of the peace’. Note ‘liable’ not ‘has’.

Were Stephen to be walking around with an erection then yes, that could be reasonably construed as offensive or threatening but he doesn’t, we are talking about a perfectly normal bloke walking for pleasure without clothes. It has been said that children could be upset but this is only because under generations of conditioning people have hidden away parts of their body so that they become mysterious, considered ‘dirty’ and taboo. Children brought up in a naturist home or one where the parents don’t bother to cover up after a shower or a bath are not at all upset or bothered by a naked body, they just accept it as normal which, of course, it is.

There is controversy about the Human Rights Act but if we can’t choose whether to wear clothes or not whilst walking from Lands End to John O’Groats as Stephen has then I suggest we have no rights at all.